"She only wants half a piece of cake."
Translation:她只要半块蛋糕。
24 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
It's better, I think, but technically it pretty much suffers from the same problem.
I think we could use the qualifier "regular" — "a regular serving", "a regular(-sized) piece", etc. — and then say that she wants half of that, though it would require the speaker and the listener to have a shared understanding of what a regular serving/piece was.
But in context, perhaps either "piece" or "serving" on its own could be understood to mean the "regular" version of either of those.
58
It is not as common but still colloquial. I was just a little surprised it wasn't used at all here, but then again their conception of 想、很、要 and such is a little different from what is normal for me and a others here.
105
2020.8.12
If you only use 想 without a verb following it, it means "to think, consider" and not "to want, want to"
58
No, you can say 她只要那块蛋糕的一半。 if you want to use 一半 and it would translate as something like "...half a piece of that cake".
105
2021.03.31
That is because you have no 要。You said "She only thinks/ponders/supposes about half a piece of cake."
It should be
只想要 or
只要 (the Duo's answer here)